Philippa Levine

DPhil,
Oxford University

Professor

Contact

Biography

Phillippa Levine has published extensively on the management of STDs in the 19th and 20th centuries and on eugenics. She teaches in these areas and also regularly teaches an undergraduate course on the history of scientific and medical ethics.

Courses

EUS 346 • England In The 20th Century

This class will consider the course of British history over the twentieth century, a time in which Britain moved from considerable authority in the world to a much reduced status, politically and economically most especially. Since so much of Britain’s power derived from its extensive imperial possessions, the British Empire is as central to this course as are considerations of domestic British history. Alongside this global decline, however, the twentieth century saw dynamic change in British society: in the mid-century years, Britain was transformed into a multi-racial and multi-ethnic society. It shaped one of the dominant welfare states of the century and dominated popular culture for at least a decade before reverting back to a deep conservatism in the 1980s under the long leadership of Margaret Thatche. We will also consider Britain’s recent and momentous decision to leave the European Union.

HIS 306N • History Of Human Sexuality

The course will approach the history of sexuality from four angles: sexual behaviors (including but not limited to sexual orientation, prostitution, rape, use of pornography); sexual consequences (including but not limited to STDs, conception, birth control, abortion); sexual regulation (including but not limited to laws on abortion , obscenity, age of consent, and race-mixing; role of religion; role of the state) and sexual science (including but not limited to gender assignment and intersex; sexology). ??

Texts:

Course texts will consist principally of scholarly articles which will be made available on Canvas/??

Grading:

?Assessment will be based on a series of assignments completed at regular intervals throughout the course. There will be one in-class mid-term exam, and three take-home assignments focused on individual research related to the themes of the course.

HIS 306N • History Of Human Sexuality

The course will approach the history of sexuality from four angles: sexual behaviors (including but not limited to sexual orientation, prostitution, rape, use of pornography); sexual consequences (including but not limited to STDs, conception, birth control, abortion); sexualregulation (including but not limited to laws on abortion , obscenity, age of consent, and race-mixing; role of religion; role of the state) and sexual science (including but not limited to gender assignment and intersex; circumcision; sexology).

Texts:

Course texts will include Robert Buffington, Eithne Luibhéid and Donna Guy, A Global History of Sexuality (Wiley, 2014) and Robert A. Nye, Sexuality (Oxford, 1999).

Grading:

Assessment will be based on a series of assignments completed at regular intervals throughout the course, culminating in a research paper, the topic of which will be chosen in consultation with the instructor and TAs. Students will be asked to write a short paragraph weekly (ungraded) on the topics to be covered, will sit one (graded) in-class mid-term exam, and keep a journal which will detail their progress on the research paper due at the end of the semester. The journal will be submitted for grading every three weeks, which will allow the instructor and TAs to intervene early where necessary if a student is not meeting the standards of the course.

HIS 365G • Science, Ethics, & Society

38720 • Fall 2015
Meets MW 3:00PM-4:30PM UTC 3.112

This course explores the ethics of scientific experimentation on humans in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Nuremberg code of the late 1940s will act as a pivotal historical marker in the course, and students will be encouraged to ask how far the principles of informed consent to which it gave rise changed the scientific landscape. The course will consider both medical and scientific projects and will focus largely on case studies. These may include experiments conducted on convicts, children and slaves. The course will also explore chemical warfare testing and radiation experiments; compulsory sterilization, and deception. Students will study science not only as an enterprise with a history, but a history closely tied to prevailing social values.

Texts may include:??

Susan Lederer, Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America Before the Second World War (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).??

Jordan Goodman, Anthony McElligott, and Lara Marks, Useful Bodies: Humans in the Service of Medical Science in the Twentieth Century (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003).??

HIS 394H • Intro To Historical Inquiry

39950 • Fall 2014
Meets W 9:00AM-12:00PM GAR 4.100

This course is designed to introduce all incoming history graduate students to a variety of theoretical, methodological, or historiographical approaches to the past.

Texts:

Readings will range from classic works of history (e.g., E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class) to theoretical engagements with history writing (e.g., Ranajit Guha and Gayatri Chakravorty, eds., Selected Subaltern Studies) to theories of historical change (e.g., Marx, Captial).

Grading:

Grades will be based on class participation and several short to medium writing assignments.

Required of all entering graduate students in history.

Prerequiste: Graduate standing and consent of the graduate adviser.

EUS 346 • World Of The Victorians

Britain in the Victorian age has been subject to a great deal of myth-making. It is often seen as a prudish age in which women were kept in the home and children were seen and not heard. This course will offer a more realistic view of the period, as well as exploring how such visions of the Victorian era came about in the twentieth century.

The course is intended to introduce students to the main contours of social and cultural British history both in Britain and in its burgeoning empire. It will examine the paradoxes and contradictions that characterize late eighteenth and nineteenth-century British society, and explore what the idea of “being British” might be said to mean at this time. ‘The World of the Victorians’ offers a broad survey of Victorian social and cultural history, and will include such topics as religion, sexuality, gender, class, family life, the countryside and the city, science and society, and much more.

Texts:

The readings will largely consist of primary source materials, mostly available online.

Grading:

Grading will be on the following basis, and will include +/- grades:three assignments/exams, weighted equally:

HIS 365G • Science, Ethics, & Society

39585 • Spring 2012
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM UTC 3.124

This course explores the ethics of scientific experimentation on humans (and to a smaller extent animals) in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Nuremberg code of the late 1940s will act as a pivotal historical marker in the course, and students will be encouraged to ask how far the principles of informed consent to which it gave rise changed the scientific landscape. The course will consider both medical and scientific projects and will focus largely on case studies. These will include experiments conducted on convicts (e.g. Leo Stanley’s implantation of testicular matter into convicts at San Quentin, CA; drug company testing in Holmesburg Prison (PA) inmates); children (e.g. A. O. Neville’s experiments in Australia with biological absorptionism; The ‘Monster Study’ in Iowa); and slaves (in the American South). The course will explore chemical warfare testing and radiation experiments (e.g. Porton Down; mustard gas testing in Australia; Bikini Atoll); compulsory sterilisation (e.g. Germany; Scandinavia, US), and active deception of subjects (Tuskegee syphilis experiment). Students will study science not only as an enterprise with a history, but a history closely tied to prevailing social values.

Texts may include:

Susan Lederer, Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America Before the Second World War (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).

Jordan Goodman, Anthony McElligott, and Lara Marks, Useful Bodies: Humans in the Service of Medical Science in the Twentieth Century (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003).

EUS 346 • England In The 20th Century

This class will consider the course of British history over the twentieth century, a time in which Britain moved from considerable authority in the world to a much reduced status, politically and economically most especially. Since so much of Britain’s power derived from its extensive imperial possessions, the British Empire is as central to this course as are considerations of domestic British history. Alongside this global decline, however, the twentieth century saw dynamic change in British society: in the mid-century years, Britain was transformed into a multi-racial and multi-ethnic society. It shaped one of the dominant welfare states of the century and dominated popular culture for at least a decade before reverting back to a deep conservatism in the 1980s under the long leadership of Margaret Thatcher.

Imagine a world without shampoo, toothpaste, and telephones, without showers or televisions, but where the air was nonetheless polluted and the cities were noisier and dirtier than today. Imagine a world in which a woman walking alone was considered unrespectable, and in which few white-collar occupations would employ her. Imagine a world in which a speed of 30 miles per hour was breathtaking but in which letters were routinely delivered the day they were mailed. Welcome to the world of the Victorians.

This course will introduce you to Britain in the nineteenth century, and to the empire it was busy building at that time. It will examine the paradoxes and contradictions that characterize nineteenth-century British society, and explore what the idea of “being British” might be said to mean at this time.

Required Texts

We will be relying for most of our readings on primary sources available online and detailed in the course outline below. They are mostly quite short.

There is also one required text for this class and you may choose between buying a copy or accessing it online. The textbook is primarily a background text for reference, providing additional information and clarification. Regard it as a useful tool for verifying facts and expanding your knowledge of particular topics. It will not provide sufficient material for you to earn good grades, particularly in the case of your term paper.

The text you will need to acquire is:

Sally Mitchell, Daily Life in Victorian England (1996) – this is available both as a paperback book and online through UT’s database collections. It is part of the database entitled “Daily Life Online”.

When you click this link, the system will prompt you for your UT information, without which you cannot access this material.

Each chapter is divided into a series of sections and you will need to click on each link separately to read the entire chapter

Course Mechanics

Please ensure you have turned off any pagers, cell phones, or other noise-emitting devices before coming to class. If you disturb a class period with any such device, you will be required to leave for the remainder of the day's class. A second such disturbance will reduce your final grade in the course by a full grade fraction.

This class uses Blackboard, a Web-based course management system with password-protected access at http://courses.utexas.edu. If you need support in using Blackboard, contact the ITS Help Desk at 475-9400, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Course Website

The Blackboard site for this course contains a copy of the syllabus, advice about writing, exam-taking and a breakdown of minimum grading requirements, as well as an FAQ. Any class announcements will be posted to this site. It will be your responsibility to check the website frequently to make sure you know what’s going on.

Assignments and Grading Policies

Grading will be on the following basis, and will include +/- grades

Assessment in this course is based on two mid-term in-class exams and one research paper. Each is worth 30% of the total grade. The remaining 10% of your grade will reflect participation in the class.

Your research paper will be due on Monday December 6. For this assignment, you will write a letter of about eight pages (double-spaced, font no larger than 12 point), taking on the character of someone from any time in the period we are studying, that is, from the nineteenth century but not beyond. You may choose to be an outsider visiting Britain or one of its colonies, a Briton or a colonial subject either in your own country or in another country under British authority. You could, for instance, be a British colonial officer or a member of a British colonial family in a colony, or visiting relatives and friends in Britain. You could be someone from a British colony observing British society (as a visitor, a student, a dignitary on a state tour, as examples) or observing the workings of colonialism in your own society. Equally you could be British in Britain. You can be someone who really existed, or someone you have imagined. Whatever characterization you choose, you are writing a letter perhaps to a friend, a family member, a business partner -- whoever you choose -- describing where you are, the events of the day, the customs and home life of people, the politics and whatever else strikes you. You will, of course, need to do some research outside the lectures and textbooks in order to do a decent job on this exercise. Please make use of my office hours (or make an appointment if these are unsuitable for you) to discuss subject matter, further reading, and any other questions you might have. In addition to the eight pages of text, you should append a bibliography of sources that have helped you with the research. The term paper should also acknowledge all citations in footnotes or endnotes. If you prefer to use APA in-text citations, that’s fine. Just make sure you are consistent with the citation method you adopt.

All papers must be typed double-spaced. You may use either one or both sides of the paper, as you prefer. Please paginate your work and clip the paper together with a paper clip or staple. No assignments may be sent by e-mail; they must be presented in hard copy.

Assignments handed in late will be marked down by a grade fraction for each 24 hour period beyond their due date and time, and no papers will be accepted more than 48 hours beyond their original due date. It is important to know this, since you will automatically fail the course unless you complete every assignment and exam.

In grading your assignments,I look at depth of analysis (do you really try to think carefully about the implications of the readings, or do you simply summarize or state the most obvious points about the texts?), ability to synthesize, insights from a variety of different texts, and quality of writing.

Ensure that, if you are modeling your response on someone else's work, you cite that authority and acknowledge your use of the work. If you're not sure if you're getting it right, then ask for help.

The Undergraduate Writing Center (FAC 211, 471-6222, http://uwc.fac.utexas.edu/) offers free, individualized, expert help with writing for any UT undergraduate, by appointment or on a drop-in basis. Any undergraduate enrolled in a course at UT can visit the UWC for assistance with any writing project.

Academic Conduct

Students are required to uphold the standards of academic honesty set by the University of Texas at Austin. The standards and regulations for scholastic dishonesty are available online at: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/ scholdis.php.

All work must be your own and all cases of plagiarism will automatically result in a failing grade for the course as a whole. There will be no deadline extensions or incomplete grades unless the instructor is presented with a legitimate excuse (medical, etc.) in advance of the due date.

Students with Disabilities

If you have a documented disability and require academic accommodations, please contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 512-471-6259 (voice) or 1-866-329-3986 (Video Phone) as soon as possible. If you have accommodations for exams, please remember that it is your responsibility to remind the instructor of any testing accommodations five business days before each exam.

Religious Holy Days

By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, I will give you an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.

Course Outline

Week 1August 25: Introduction

Week 2August 30: Discussion of research techniques and sourcesSeptember 1: Overview of British CultureMitchell, ‘Introduction: The Victorians and their World and ‘A Brief History of Victorian England: Before The Victorians’

Week 6: Building the Victorian CitySeptember 27/29Mitchell, ‘Working Life’ -- all sections (you will need to click on each separately)‘Observations on the Filth of the Thames,’a letter to the Editor of the Times of London (July 7, 1855) by Professor Michael Faraday (available on Blackboard)http://www.victorianweb.org/history/chadwick2.html (Edwin Chadwick on urban sanitary conditions, 1842)

The Amateur and the Professional. Historians, Antiquarians and Archaeologists in Victorian England, 1838-1886

Current Graduate Students

Studies Victorian civic culture. Her interests include S=Social and cultural history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Great Britain, particularly in regards to class and labor relations. Comparative history of working-class, public history, and material culture in modern Europe.

Studies British Empire in the 18th century Mediterranean. Interests include the British Empire, the British Mediterranean, Long Eighteenth Century, Cultural and Social History, Maritime History, Legal History, Subjecthood and National Identity.

Fieldwork & Research

Professor Levine's main current research project is a history of nakedness.

Forthcoming with Oxford University Press: Eugenics: A Very Short Introduction

Forthcoming with Bloomsbury The British Empire: Critical Readings (4-volumes)